Sauber F1 Team 2015

[Jonnycraig]

Some of Saubers attempts at defence were so tragic as to be hilarious.

"He's never driven a 2015 Ferrari engine, he could kill someone"

Quite incredible to hear that Ericsson & Nasr had no idea VDG & Sutil had contracts already and we're still on the scene. In a less shady business than F1 that would qualify as a quite major act of fraud.

[FW17]

Well Pastor ran into a Esteban while poking his steering wheel.

Van de Garde will have trouble now that the steering wheel is ever more complicated with no driver coaching allowed.

[knabbel]

The fact that Sauber is playing the safety card shows for me that they know that they have a big problem.

If they can't just remove Ericsson or Nasr from their line up because they will then draw back the sponsor money.

[XRayF1]

They really have worked themselves into an entirely huge mess. Lawyers of Nasr and Ericsson are not happy that they didn't know Sauber still had strings attached with VDG. Sauber surely doesn't shine confidence towards their drivers, managers and also their sponsors.

I totally agree it is a mess.

I am not taking any side on this (just do not know enough who has said/signed what when), but basically and whatever you may think of Sauber as a team, they would surely not have done such a step, if they would not think they have a strong argument in the Sauber-VDG contract. Judgement based on such principle that if you don't you do not run a 300m€ enterprise.
Perhaps money has clouded their judgement, but at least one of their counselors/lawyers must have seen a way of stepping out of the VDG contract.

[knabbel]

Judgement based on such principle that if you don't you do not run a 300m€ enterprise.
Perhaps money has clouded their judgement, but at least one of their counselors/lawyers must have seen a way of stepping out of the VDG contract.

I think that for Sauber the urge of money was so big on the end of the season that they had no real choice. It was either going bankrupt or sign Nasr and Ericsson for a direct financial injection and then hope that they could write off VdG and Sutil

[turbof1]

I have to admit: if safety concerns are the only arguments you can bring forward, then the team has to be in a very tight situation.

Nasr and Ericsonn already have their own lawyers on the case. If the judge effectively rules that vd Garde has to drive, Sauber will be spending a lot more hours in the court room.

However, vd Garde's lawyer also had some bogus arguments, claiming that Sauber would not breach Nasr's and Ericsonn's contracts by running vd garde. Yeah right.

There will be no verdict until wednesday.

[Sniffit]

And before the day is over there will be an appeal.

Don't see how it can have gone this far, the series ought to have moved in and brokered a deal last week.

With that said I don't see how vdG can claim a drive, economic compensation sure, but a drive?
It's not his property, it's Saubers and if Sauber want to give the seat it to someone it is up to them (provided that they pay contractual restitution that is).

[Daliracing]

Did VDG actually had a contract to actually race? Or did he had an option for a seat this year? i remembered the option but don't know if that has changed.

[Phil]

From what I understand, or what some newspaper have reported, it was an option. Not sure how binding that is, but given Saubers arguments at the Victorian Court, it seems that contract are rather quite complex (as you could imagine, as it involves a paydriver, so any contract extends beyond the driver simply being contracted to drive the car, but also includes payment [by his backers] to Sauber as a team).

If the verdict is on Wednesday, it certainly isn't leaving a lot of time to fit that seat...

[knabbel]

Did VDG actually had a contract to actually race? Or did he had an option for a seat this year? i remembered the option but don't know if that has changed.

From what I understood, was it an option in his testcontract, and Sauber lifted that in July. So fram that point on it was a race contract.

By the way, what do you guys think about Kaltenborn? Will she survive this mess?

[turbof1]

Difficult to say. In all honesty, Sauber has not thrived at all under Kaltenborn. Peter Sauber had to deal with problems too, but he actually did managed to do so!

You can drop Kaltenborn, but who will take her place? Peter decides on that, but does not want to return himself as head principle. I simply can't see anybody else taking up that job.

[Phil]

I'd also say it's hard to effectively judge Kaltenborn, because we can't be sure how much of a challenge she is facing (financially) and how her actions respond to the success or failure within the team. One thing is for sure though; Her job is anything but easy and I wonder if there is anyone outthere who could do a better job. Lets not forget, 2014 was a disaster - a disaster that is directly linked to the Ferrari PU and Saubers financial struggles. Ferrari may have held on to 4th in 2014, but that was with a significant higher budget, as a works-team, and with the likes of Alonso and Raikoennen. To put that into perspective - the top 10 finishers get points and 4 teams with 2 car each already occupy the first 8 places. From the midfielders, ForceIndia, McLaren, Lotus and TorroRosso managed to fill those gaps (most with much better PUs or higher budgets) - while Sauber managed not a single point. Sauber has been fighting with a smaller budget year after year as their struggles become more serious. I'm not sure any of this can be attributed to Monisha.

[FW17]

2013 was a trouble too with their mini sidepod after a great 2012

VdG salary is probably half a million which Sauber wants to stretch till money from FOM comes in at the end of the month

[Godius]

Some of Saubers attempts at defence were so tragic as to be hilarious.

"He's never driven a 2015 Ferrari engine, he could kill someone"

Quite incredible to hear that Ericsson & Nasr had no idea VDG & Sutil had contracts already and we're still on the scene. In a less shady business than F1 that would qualify as a quite major act of fraud.

the first thing that popped up in my mind were the images of Nasr who crashed his car into Wolff during a testing day in Barcelona:
https://twitter.com/grandprixradio/stat ... 4659009537

[knabbel]

That comment is also briljant: The translation: Maybe the judge should ask Susie Wolff how dangerous an other Sauber driver is.